Modern is a strange word in that it means both current and past at the same time. Modernism was an early 20th century art movement---modern is up-to-date.

Carol Gilham Jones, Free Form Circles, 2008

Simple geometrics repeated---a hallmark of Modernism

The most up-to-date thing in quilts today is the Modern Quilt. Yet we can look at the trend as a reflection of the past---a movement that has roots in the early 19th century when the "modern era" began---the years of the industrial revolution and political rebellion against traditional religion and monarchic states.

Rain, Steam & Speed: The Great Western Railway, 1844

by J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851)

New attitudes about art accompanied new concepts in science and philosophy. Artists who had used tools of line, shape and color to imitate nature now saw line, shape and color as valuable in themselves. J.M.W. Turner's 1844 painting above abstracted the new railroads into rain, steam, speed, color and line.

Cocktail by Gerald Murphy, 1927

Oil painting

The modern art movement in the early 20th century emphasized shape and flat planes of color.

Elektrische Prismen, by Sonia Delaunay, 1914

Oil Painting

European designers like Anni Fleschman Albers and Sonia Delaunay adapted modern design to textiles.

Weaving by Anni Albers, 1926
Modernists looked to folk arts like stencilled decorations and folk weavings for inspiration. Folk art and ethnic arts took on new value as artists imitated their use of color and abstraction.

Detail of a log cabin quilt, about 1880

Chinese Coins, about 1900

We can imagine how fresh these 19th-century American quilts must have looked to people who grew up in the visual clutter of the Victorian era.

Patchwork 1908

Reel quilt, about 1850

Mennonite sawtooth medallion, about 1900

Detail pieced floral about 1850

It's easy to find parallels between 20th century modern art and 19th century quilts, but it isn't coincidence. Modern artists found much inspiration in folk arts.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Kathy from New York had a question about a Double Irish Chain quilt top:

I recently received a red and muslin quilt top, it is all hand pieced. It has a marking on the backside of one muslin piece- it says "finished soft for the sewing machine" and there is a picture of a woman at a sewing machine. I am trying to learn where this stamp came from and that may help date the quilt. The person that gave me the quilt top knew nothing about its origin.

The stamp is probably a "bolt stamp," a textile mill identification device.

Today we identify our prints on the selvage edge with words and logos printed on the fabric.

The marking system was similar in the 18th century as in this piece of furnishing chintz

which probably reads "Printed in xxxx" on the left.

Here's a bolt stamp from about 1800 that is more legible.

Under the crown it says "British Manufactory"

This one identifies the Ovey shop in London.

Bolt stamps were also applied in places other than the selvage, often by wood blocks with copper wire additions for detail in the most elaborate logos. Bolt stamps applied other than in the selvage worked best on plain white cotton, manufactured at a bleachery. The Bolton Museum in Lancashire, England has several collections of bleacher's bolt stamp prints, the earliest dating to the 1830's-'40s. Bolt stamps seem to have fallen out of use in the mid-20th century, possibly because of the labor expense in making them.

The Museum website also mentions:

Small stamps, called "truth marks"…placed at the cloth end. If the truth mark was missing, then it meant the cloth had been cut down.

So Kathy's stamp looks to be a bolt stamp from a bleachery. It's hard to date quilt tops that are just Turkey red and white, but they were quite popular from about 1880 to 1910. The fabric certainly had to be after the spread of the sewing machine which began about 1845.

During much of the 19th century mills also identified themselves with paper labels on prints

As color lithography advanced these bolt labels became quite elaborate.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

A sewing diary is a bound journal documenting fabrics, fashion and sewing projects. I've seen a few in museum collections and I know of a few you can see online.

They are personal swatch books with notes on when and where fabric was purchased, the price, what kind of dress was made with it and sometimes where the dress was worn.

Swatch book from a French manufacturer showing madder-style prints

They differ from swatch books or sample books like the one above in that sewing diaries are kept by the consumer. Swatch books are kept by the manufacturer as a record of what's been printed.

The Victoria and Albert Museum owns a sewing diary created by Barbara Johnson (1738-1825) who began her journal when she was 8 years old and continued pasting in swatches into her 80s. As you can imagine, it's a valuable record of cloth and fashion in the 18th and early 19th centuries.

You can see she's pasted fashion plates and swatches into a used ledger. They call it an album. You can also classify it as a form of scrapbook.

The Museum printed a facsimile called A Lady of Fashion: Barbara Johnson’s Album of Styles and Fabrics in 1987. It cost about $100 new and now brings $200-$500. (This book is probably going to remain quite valuable as a collectible book.)

Ann Eliza Cunningham stitched fabric samples from 1841 to 1890 and made notes on the pages.

On the ATHM page you will see in the lower middle of the page a blue line with the subject Sewing Diaries.
Click on that and several will come up.

Last year the Historic Costume and Textiles Collection at The Ohio State University displayed Susan Hunter Beall's album inspired by Barbara Johnson's. The exhibit called The Sewer's Art: Quality, Fashion, and Economy showed Beall's relatively recent records of her art.

Friday, May 21, 2010

When Edie McGinnis was planning her new book A Second Helping of "Desserts": More Sweet Quilts Using Precut Fabrics I showed her a photo of an old log cabin variation I'd been thinking of reproducing. She said she'd like to do it using Moda's Jelly Roll strips from my Civil War Homefront collection. I said "Go for it."

Keeping with her sweet theme she called it Chocolate Covered Cherries. Technically, this old quilt pattern, which seems to date back to the 1880s or so, should be called a quarter of a log cabin but in Gee's Bend, Alabama, the quilters who use it a lot have called it a Half a Log. Another name is Chevrons.

A Gee's Bend version

See two quilts by Alabama's African-American quilters from the Cargo collection at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Ruth writes that she is looking for more William Morris reproduction fabrics. Can we ever get enough? She's taking a class from Patricia Cox who designed the above block and needs more fabric. I can see Ruth's used several prints from my first Morris Garden reproduction collection introduced about two years ago.

I am working on a third collection that will be in quilt shops in late fall. I'll be calling it A Morris Tapestry.

And Michele Hill, author of William Morris in Applique, writes on her blog that she will be doing a Morris-inspired line for In The Beginning Fabrics:

It will be very William Morris like (of course!) – not reproductions though – all new designs. And how wonderful that it is to be called “The Adelaide Collection” ....our home!

Michele's new Australian book More William Morris Applique will be out soon.

She's used The Morris Workshop fabrics in the quilt shown in detail above.

More Morris Inspiration:

Carolyn More, William Morris Goes Aussie

Carolyn's sewing group all made quilts from this Shadow Box design they saw in an Australian magzine---a great way to use the 10" precuts that Moda calls Layer Cakes. Carolyn combined the fabrics from my Morris Workshop collection with a cheery blue batik. I think the pattern is from Mountain Peek.

Ode to William Morris by Patricia Cox

Here's Pat Cox's version of her pattern. Find out more by clicking here at her website:

ANTIQUE QUILT SHOWSWinter/Spring 2015

Planning a road trip? Click on the photo of Jean Harlow to see a list of museum shows.

E-Book version of Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.

Click on the book cover to buy a downloadable version.

Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns

This bound volume of this index to 4,000 designs with names is Out of Print. See used copies below or buy an E-Book version

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Contact Me

The email address for this blog is MaterialCult@gmail.com

ANTIQUE QUILTS A-ZQUILT HISTORY BASICSEBook Available Now

Click on the cover to see a preview of my gift book from print-on-demand publisher Blurb. Buy a print book or an eBook for iPads.Click on the picture for the eBook link.

THE GARDEN QUILT: Interpreting a Masterpiece

Ilyse Moore and I have a pattern book for the masterpiece Garden applique medallion. Click on the cover to read more.

The Garden Quilt

BlockBase

This computer program features over 4,300 patterns. Use it for pattern ideas, pattern I.D. and pattern drafting. Program is for PC's. Click on the box.

Visit My Spoonflower Shop

I have a few designs available at Spoonflower.com. You can buy yardage of postcard backs, quilt labels (like the one in the photo) and political prints in my Material Culture shop. Click on the label.

BOOK OF THE SAINTS EBOOK

You can buy my Book of the Saints For Quilters as an EBook for IPads for $3.99. Click on the picture to find ordering information for my 30-page collection of photocollages.

Lately Arrived EBook for IPads

A few years ago I did a Blurb book to accompany my Moda repro collection Lately Arrived From London. You can buy this little book with ideas and information on early quilts for $3.99 for your IPad. Click to see

CLUES IN THE CALICO eBook

My classic about dating antique quilts has been out of print for years. Buy a digital version by clicking on the picture of the eBook. Or click on the Amazon button for a used copy.

Clues in the Calico Print Book

Making History: Quilts & Fabric From 1890-1970

A guide to making reproduction quilts, choosing reproduction prints and dating fabrics. Click on the cover to read more and see a preview.

America's Printed Fabrics: 1770-1890

How to date antique fabrics and add to your stash of reproduction prints with projects for reproduction quilts.

A french version

PATTERN INDEXES

Need a pattern name or a fresh idea? Want to know the source or designer's name? Look to these bound indexes or my digital BlockBase, the software version of the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, compatible with Electric Quilt.

Encyclopedia of Applique

The Encyclopedia of Applique second edition. Click on the book for more information about an E-Book format and below for a traditional book format.

CIVIL WAR REPRODUCTION QUILTS

We are remembering the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War from 2011-2015. Over the years I've written several books featuring traditional patterns suitable for recalling the War in a sesquicentennial quilt.

CIVIL WAR SAMPLER

My 2013 book based on my Civil War Quilts blog. Click on the Amazon button below to see a preview:

Facts and Fabrications

Twenty traditional blocks to "Unravel the History of Quilts and Slavery." Click on the cover above to see an E-Book version or below for a traditional book format.

Borderland in Butternut and Blue

A Block of the Month featuring patterns and stories recalling the Civil War in the west. Click on the cover to see more.

Borderland in Butternut & Blue

Quilts From the Civil War

Information on the role of quilts in the Civil War. Click on the cover to read more and order a digital version of this out-of-print classic or buy it used below.

Quilts From the Civil War

Civil War Women

More about quilts and how women used them during the War for fundraising, patriotism and practical bedding. Click on the cover to see more about a Print-On-Demand book.

BLOCK OF THE MONTH SERIES

The books below feature a series of blocks on a theme, perfect for shops looking for classes and clubs. Or challenge yourself to do a block every month and finish a sampler this year.

Juniper and Mistletoe

Karla Menaugh and I designed a BOM featuring quirky tree designs we found in antique quilts. Click on the cover to see more.

Carrie Hall's Sampler

A Block of the Month, featuring my favorite applique from Carrie Hall's 1935 Romance of the Patchwork Quilt.

Women of Design: Quilts in the Newspaper

Stitch pieced and appliqued baskets in the style of pattern designers from the 1930s as you learn about where quilt patterns come from.

Prairie Flower: A Year on the Plains

First published in The Kansas City Star as a block of the month, these original applique patterns recall the landscape of the westward migration.

Prairie Flower

museum catalogs

Over the years I've done catalogs of collections and museum shows. Here are links to a few.